The Difference in Cultural or Ethnic Background between the Teacher and the Students - Assignment Example

? Philosophy Inquiry Study Review Part a Goals The bases the study on the problem experienced by most teachers, whereby there usually exists a difference in cultural or ethnic background between the teacher and some or all of the students in the classroom. This situation of cultural indifference is majorly common between white teachers and black students whereby, in most cases, the teachers expect similar responses from all the children in the classroom. These responses are based on language routines, and language use in building skills, knowledge and dispositions. The study aimed at evaluating the existing differences in responses particularly from the black children as compared to the other children in the classrooms chosen for the study. This objective involved the role of questioning in socialization and language. Variation of questions was evaluated in proportion to other types of responses or utterances contained in the three circumstances, as well as the uses of different questions and the assumptions on the functions of questions as established by the author. The objective of the research work was to indicate verbal strategies, and how the resultant ethnographic data in the home and community settings could be applied in comparing the collected data in the functions of language studies carried out in the classrooms. The research involved collecting information beyond the confines of the classroom, i.e. the interactions at the children’s home and also the teachers’ homes. This provided the right criteria for effective schooling ethnography. The research also aimed at demonstrating the desirability of long term research as shown in the author intermittently engaging health in the study for a period of 5 years. The study also aimed at demonstrating the utility of incorporating a clear frame of reference for use in the study. The frame of reference used for this particular study was the ethnography of communication and language socialization. These two elements are recent developments are interdisciplinary in cultural anthropology. The study also had direct potential of application for education improvement in the classroom through the interaction of the community and the school. Research method The research presents data on the usage of questions in three different circumstances. The study setup was carried out in a city located in the Southeastern United States, known to comprise of black residents of the working class community, children from this community who attended the classrooms selected for the study, and also comprising of the teachers’ homes who teach in the mentioned classrooms. The field work was carried out for a period of five years in both institutional and community settings. Results of the study were shared and discussed among the institutional and community settings. The first phase of the study was carried out in a group comprising of only black residents with the members identifying themselves as a community, both on the basis of group membership or spatial members. This group was referred to as Trackton in order to differentiate the group from the entire public community. Majority of Trackton households had one or more of their members between the ages of 21 and 45, and worked in jobs that provided high or equal salaries to the teachers. Rulings of segregation often put black children to be taught by white teachers, in classrooms that were formerly for white students. The key focus on field work was the acquisition of language uses, ways of satisfying needs of children by learning language use, information transmission, asking questions, and convincing other children and adults that they were competent communicators. Data was collected for a period of five years while observing and participating in the classrooms and some homes for the teachers. Data collection was done across a broad range of circumstances, as well as longitudinally following the children as they continued to acquire communication competence, and translating the acquired competence into the school settings. The context of use of language substantially determined how the teachers, community members, fellow workers and public service personnel judged the competence of communication of the residents in Trackton. There was effective handling of questioning because outside members often judged the general competence and intelligence of members from the questions asked and their responses. Findings It was evident from the study that there existed little meaningful communication proceeding between the children in the classroom and the teachers. The teachers indicated that there was insignificant exchange of real information, imagination or feelings between them and most of the black students. These differences in language structures of the teachers and the black students could be the leading determinant for the reported communication breakdown. Other views indicated that communication breakdown was as a result of the nature of interactions, which called for responses that depended on the routines and rituals of the classroom life, and the skills and information acquired in the classroom. The teachers felt a strong desire to find effective ways of communicating equally to all the children. Questions served several functions in the interactions between the children and adults by allowing the adults to hold meaningful conversations with the children, and to connect formulaic responses in meaningful situations. Consequently, the children were compelled to give answers to questions asked by the adults, even if it meant inventing fantastic answers. Interrogative forms were predominant in the utterances types directed to preschoolers. Most of the interrogatives were condemnations and directives of the children’s behaviors. The last month of data collection revealed that adults put emphasis in asking the right questions in the right places, while avoiding questions that might pose to be challenging to the adults’ authority. Part b Race, ethnicity and gender The communication traditions and raising children have been devalued in the American society, an aspect that is reflected in the usage of a single Black community, as well as ethnography of language learning from the study. The challenge that arises is the use of minority groups, especially blacks, whose practices and traditions are at the mercy of the outsider’s perceptions. The outsider may, in most cases, have different cultural assumptions and may not understand the culture of the blacks, which can be dangerous. The study does not give the provision of perceptions from the outsider but rather basis the ability to perceive knowledge as entirely dependent on the knower. Reports on the traditional practices of the black communities have been reported to cause many instances of negative stereotypes and culminated in the tangle of pathology. Developmental deviance and deprivation are usually portrayed in most reports of communication styles and language patterns of blacks. This is quite evident in Heath’s study as there is evidence of explication of the pragmatic features of these patterns. The reader is enlightened on the linkage between culture and language, as well as the impossibility of valuing one language more than the others. It is clearly evident that the existence of a critical analysis of the patterns of language usage encouraged in schools and taught to children is described by the author. The values and assumptions behind the communication and child rearing practices of the black community are portrayed in the strengths of the ethnography, by the presence of the insiders’ perspectives of the black community’s culture. The family structure of the teachers and black residents is clearly contrasted by the author. The author reveals the communication patterns between the children and adults. These patterns get reinforcement from the norms and practices of the community on the roles of the children as compared to the roles of the adults. Most people face the risk of misinterpreting this study, and, therefore, require considerable guidance in digesting the information and perspectives provided in the study. It is even possible to find blacks who have information and knowledge on the communicative traditions of the black community, resisting understanding or misinterpreting the main highlights of the study. One compelling point to note is the power of ethnography in dealing with the silent issues of race and ethnicity. These issues are rarely discussed in the school setting, which may pose potential risks of facing biases about the black community or other minority groups. Stereotyping is reinforced by the absence of dialogue, since many people avoid rational discussion of such issues because they are deemed to be practices of negative values. Ethnography, as portrayed in the study, addresses the revelations by the group members that branding practices with negative values is not unidirectional, as the same people are most likely to hold the same perceptions to the mainstream practices. Part C Post-positivism The scholar is compelled and overwhelmed by the study and considers it to be an appropriate analysis of the issue of ethnography. The study demystifies several myths created on the rigorous inquiry. The research demonstrates that rigorous studies do not necessarily have to follow the workflow of hypothesis testing or a randomized experimental design, but can instead use conjectures giving guidance to the activities of data collection. The study was a masterpiece that was naturalistic as the author studied natural settings from within. The study illustrates the artificial distinction that exists between quantitative and qualitative research methods. The study uses descriptive statistics, which fits into the framework of detailed analysis. However, the author needs to give more description on the method of investigation as the information provided in the first parts of the paper is too shallow. Constructivism The author brings out a new fashion of ethnography which is different from the old, classical version of ethnography. The questions used are based on the concerns by the teachers because of the communication breakdown and difficulty in language acquisition that exists with the recently, desegregated students. The author then acts to intervene on behalf of teachers, students and the entire community. The author clearly describes the values of study, for example, the confrontation of teachers with impossible communicative practices, and assists them in devising measures of finding effective ways that are effective in cultural and linguistic ways. It is also clear the way epistemologies are described in multiple ways. The questioning strategies contain clues of teaching ways that are culturally appropriate. The structures of multiple epistemologies are identified to occur alongside each other, as well as their exploration of the effects of instructional practices and classroom teaching. Interpretivism The author provides a meaning to ethnography that coincides with inquiry as an idea of teaching. The parents and teachers are conceived to be involved and willing change agents after understanding various perspectives, and possible solutions to the challenges revealed by the author, on language acquisition and ethnography. The proposed rules would serve the student in order to result into contingent and successful performance in the schools. The achievement would only be possible if teachers changed their mode of communication to the affected students. Another lesson described by the author is the dependence of the teacher’s effectiveness in understanding the classroom’s interactional context, and the importance of interactional integrity in the classroom or school setting. Critical inquiry This study clearly describes anthropology of education with a line of research the provide critiques on the teaching by whites to children of color. This has caused a need for interventions to teach the school culture explicitly to every student as well as incorporation of indigenous culture of the children. Practical interests should also be distinguished from technical interests or rationality and emancipator interests. The study also promotes the notion of lived experience to close attention with potential of leading into certain courses of action. The study also highlights the importance of questioning as a central focus in judging communication competence. Reference Heath, S.B. (1982). Questioning at home and at school: A comparative study. In G. Spindler (Ed.), Doing the Ethnography of Schooling: Educational Anthropology in Action (pp. 102-107). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Read More